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“You’ll get caught if you stay!” I said. “You need to find cover or get off the island.”
“Where are you?” she asked. “Still in the aqueducts?”
“Yeah,” I said, “but I’m as far as I can go. There’s a grate above me that will take me to Quarter A, but I’m terrified of heading back up there. I feel as stuck as you do.”
The radio carried Cait’s weary sigh. “Em, I’m coming to you.”
“You’d do that?” My heart leaped. I should’ve argued with her, told her not to do it just for me when I’d seen how much it pained her, but I couldn’t bear to be alone right now. My thoughts were too grim.
“Hey, I’ve been sitting here like an idiot anyway,” she said. “And after what you just told me . . . I think I finally have the will to move.”
A tear dripped down my cheek onto the radio. “Thank you. I’ll head back to meet you. I have light.” Bile rose in my throat at the thought of once again seeing the man I’d killed, but it was possibly better than sitting here alone, and I didn’t want Cait to stumble over the Enforcer’s body in the dark.
“Got it,” said Cait. “See you when I see you.”
“I should warn you,” I said. “I’m dressed as an Enforcer, so don’t freak out and attack me.”
“Fair warning,” she said. “That’s exactly what I would’ve done.”
I put away the radio and carried the light as I traveled through the tunnel again, my nerves evident in the shifting shadows on the stone.
I kept my light averted as I passed the Enforcer’s body, breathing deeply to quell my nausea. My back ached from being stooped over for so long, but at least Cait would be here soon.
I killed a man, I thought to myself for the fiftieth time. The thought haunted me incessantly, and I wondered if I’d ever let myself forget his staring eyes or the dead weight of his body.
A long, aching walk later, my feet frozen from the constant stream of cold water, I finally saw a figure ahead.
“Mara!” Cait shouted, running toward me.
When she reached me, she pulled me into an uncharacteristic embrace, and I didn’t hesitate to return it.
I dropped my head and sank into her shoulder as she held me tightly, her wild curls covering my face as I tried to hide my tears.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “But on the plus side, that uniform is brilliant.”
I fought back the emotion and pulled away from her. “Cait, I can’t believe you came. I know this is the last place you want to be.”
“You’re not wrong,” she said with a bitter laugh, then touched the light I held. “What the hell isthis?”
“I have no idea,” I said. “The Enforcer had it. It looks like it’s made of the same stuff as those black pistols.”
“It’s like an electric torch,” said Cait, switching the buttons to turn it on and off before leaving it to me. “Lead the way.”
Around the nextbend of the aqueduct, by the grate in Quarter A that would have to be our escape route, came the promise of sunlight, though it had grown faint in the waning light of day. I switched off the light and tread carefully toward the grate above, determined to stay quiet and invisible this time.
The street looked deserted in the twilight. The sky had turned gray and the wind had picked up, whistling through the grate with a sullen hum.
I dropped the light into a pocket of my coat, preparing to move the grate to make our escape from the aqueducts. I wouldn’t be the sharpest-looking Enforcer in my ill-fitting clothing and long hair, but it would have to do.
Cait came to my side and peered through the grate. “I know where we are! This is only a street away from where I lived after I took my ranking test.”
“How long did you live here?”
“Only a few weeks.” She shrugged. “Then I was demoted to prison.”
I nodded, glad once again to have Cait as an ally. “I’m a little worried about your clothes.”
“You don’t like this look?” she asked, showing off her ragged shirt and pants that she’d probably found lying in a corner on the boat.
